Sunday, February 05, 2006

Twenty-one Toady

Pop a cork or two, for today my site has 21 links. I've just added Kim Ayres, whom I ought to have linked ages ago, and yesterday I did it to FatMammyCat, whom again I should have done it to before as she often comments here. Strictly speaking Eggagog shouldn't even be linked as I don't visit its site very often and the last time I posted a comment there, tagging it with the Seven Meme, it deleted the comment within about five minutes, which is quite impressive and a little fucking scary when you think about it. Eggagog is a dangerous organism, my friends, and it should be approached with caution and if possible a flamethrower.

Anyway, in case you're wondering about the title of this post, it's a reference to the excellent strip Harry Twenty On The High Rock in the even more excellent comic 2000 AD, which ran from 1982 to 1983 (the strip, not the comic, which is still going strong and has confounded the miserable doom-mongers who predicted its demise as early as the early 1980s and as recently as the late 1990s when they said oh-so-smugly that any comic called 2000 AD could never survive beyond the year 2000; not only is the publication thriving but it has proudly retained its title). Harry Twenty On The High Rock was about a futuristic prison on an asteroid, The High Rock, to which the worst criminals in the world were banished. Their surnames were replaced by the years they were condemned to serve; hence the hero, Harry something-or-other, who was framed for murder, was sentenced to 20 years and thus became known as Harry Twenty. This conceit gave the scriptwriters a lot of leeway to come up with funny punning names, some examples of which were: Legz Eleven, The Big Red One (he was a psychopathic killer who'd got 100 years), and Twenty-One Toady, who sucked up to the screws. The funniest thing about this story is that in South Africa, where I was living as a boy at the time, the authorities were upset about the frequently-used catchphrase 'Holy weasel!' in this strip and actually cut off the supply of the comic from Britain for a few weeks as a result.

If there are any fellow HTOTHR enthusiasts reading this I'd be glad to hear from you. Wasn't that revelation about Ben Ninety the most horrifying fucking thing you'd ever seen?

Can't say I remember Harry Twenty On The High Rock, but then I wasn't a regular buyer of 2000AD. I loved reading friend's copies when I got the chance, but none of the newsagents near me ever stocked it.

I did, however, get to meet Alan Grant (Judge Dredd writer, among many others) at the Moniaive Comic's festival that was held not too far from where I live. I wrote about it here if you're interested.

SafeT: yes, it is indeed the Dreddmeister, who made his first ever appearance in the second issue of 2000 AD in 1977.

Kim: I'm awestruck. You met Alan Grant...? Great post you've linked to, and I'm sorry to say that the resemblance to Brent is uncanny, though I'd never have noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out. I can just imagine David posting on these blogs anonymously.